Stories & Updates

VentureOn is a semester-long application-based program that offers students a chance to validate a problem and build a viable solution in resolving a chosen area of personal interest. Ventures range from social, to business, to product ideas. This semester we had a significant uptick in applicants, with a total of 54 students applying as 48 teams, up from 29 teams in Spring 2022. These 54 students represent six colleges and 23 college departments or areas of study, bringing together a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students to form a rich network of sharing. The teams will gather at the Venture Development Center, which acts as the hub for Horn Entrepreneurship activities including VentureOn.

University of Delaware 2022 graduate and former Horn Ambassador Lilly Checkoff began her start in entrepreneurship at a very young age. With her non-profit Tools For School, she provided thousands of backpacks and school supplies for underprivileged children. This non-profit guided and inspired her to surround herself with all things business once accepted as a University of Delaware freshman. Through her time at UD, she became heavily involved with Horn's different programs and excelled as a responsible student of entrepreneurial leadership. Now, as a 2022 graduate, Lilly aims to make the world her own and use her background in entrepreneurship to guide her. 

Horn Entrepreneurship and the Lerner College of Business and Economics are pleased to announce the 2022 Blue Hen 17&43 award winners, an impressive group of Blue Hen-led enterprises. Utilizing a holistic approach to select the recipients, factoring in revenue, growth, innovation and social impact, the businesses span industries from SaS platforms, Consumer Packaged Goods, Financial Services, Bio-Medical Technology as well as others. 

Horn Entrepreneurship offers many opportunities for you to make the most of your tuition! Its home, the Venture Development Center (VDC), is open to anyone at UD. Whether you have an idea or not, you can participate, network, be inspired and learn.

Horn Entrepreneurship’s pre-accelerator program, Summer Founders, ended with Demo Day on August 18, 2022. Demo Day is a showcase for entrepreneurial students seeking help from our community. Held in-person for the first time in three years, the room was filled with University of Delaware alumni, former Summer Founders, Horn team members and notable entrepreneurs and business leaders. The agenda included presentations by the 2022 Summer Founders and selected Summer Founders alumni, a networking reception and award ceremony.

Calling all Blue Hen student entrepreneurs: apply to University of Delaware’s premier startup funding competition, Hen Hatch. This program is a once-a-year opportunity for UD students to put their best ideas forward and compete for a portion of a $50,000 prize pool. The submission deadline is September 16.

“I bet you twenty bucks I can beat you in this game.” Playing video games and involving money in the equation is a situation which tends to occur regularly among gamers. Alex Pickett and Dan Goodman had a goal to create a platform where gamers can play for money. 

The last six months might have flown by for you, but the last six months these students, alumni, faculty and staff were building their businesses, becoming better students and professors, and more. Take inspiration from their achievements in this article. 

It’s a bright, blue, sunny day and you decide to take a trip to the ballpark with your friends. The game is tied and everybody is excited to see what happens next. All of a sudden your chest tightens up and you begin to wheeze. It feels impossible to get a breath and now your friends all begin to panic. You pull out your inhaler and head for the car. Just a moment ago your biggest worry was your favorite team winning, and now it’s hoping to make it out of the hospital before the day ends.

The summer founder teams at orientation on June 6, 2022, await a full 12 weeks ahead of them.

This summer six teams have been selected to participate in Horn Entrepreneurship's Summer Founders, a 12-week pre-accelerator program for student ventures.

The Summer Founders opportunity provides its participants with a combination of training sessions and resources, coaching, mentorship, and events to facilitate their venture's journey from idea to launch. At the end of their training in August, the teams will be prepared to present for demo day, where each team will pitch their ideas to members of the local business community.